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The film traces the extraordinary life of Charles Bukowski from an abusive childhood through decades of poverty and alcoholism; numerous menial jobs and turbulent relationships to his eventual international celebrity as a poet, novelist and underground cult figure. Director John Dullaghan spent seven years researching and conducting dozens of interviews with relatives, neighbours, fellow post office workers, girlfriends and friends like Bono, Sean Penn, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbet Schroeder an find out more...

Saved from a group of drifters by Kim Byung-moon uncouth and self-taught painter Jang Seung-up offers a drawing as a means of thanks. Examining the picture, Kim realises Jang's extraordinary potential and becomes his mentor, encouraging him to pursue the life of an artist. find out more...

An intriguing premise; take Dylan's music as an inspiration and using six different actors (one a young black boy, another a woman) loosely re-enact his life from childhood to venerable and venerated troubadour of the 20th Century. The possibilities of ‘I'm Not There' going horribly wrong were always going to be high but Todd Haynes manages to pull off a fascinating, hypnotic, original tale of a living icon and while the performances, with out exception, are excellent, it is Kate Blanchett's tur find out more...

Hoffman is outstanding, especially in the night club stand up comedy scenes, as the flawed cult NY genius Lenny Bruce, the Beat Generation kid who became a blueprint for a new kind of entertainer with his outrageous anti-establishment routine, his profanities, his attitude toward drugs, his irreverence and general anarchistic demeanour. A must for all budding stand up comedians and fans of good movies. find out more...

A fascinating biopic of Francis Bacon, concentrating on his relationship with George Dyer, a burglar whom he caught in his house and promptly seduced, whose amorality and innocence he found attractive and whom he introduced to his Soho pals. Dyer's bouts with depression, his drinking, pill popping and nightmares strain the relationship in this clash between the arty, boozy Soho set and the East End criminal fraternity, as does his pain with Bacon's casual infidelities. Bacon paints and talks wit find out more...

Great doco about the early days of NY hip hop and life on the projects. One of the best features of this film is that it examines the political trajectory of Nas' career through his lyrics as well as the environment and familial situation that gave rise to his stardom. Must see for fans of his music. And anyone interested in the political side of rap music.

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In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a titanic feat of physical and mental endurance that no rider has repeated since. He was a hero to millions, the saviour of professional cycling following the doping scandals which threatened to destroy the sport. However, less than six years later, aged just 34, he died alone, in a cheap Italian hotel room.

This film is not just about cycling but an emotional expl find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

A wonderful portrait of Ian Dury - he the polio crippled lyricist and front man for punk icons The Blockheads and a self-pitying, class conscious, angry, supremely talented loud mouth - struggling to relate to his pre-teen son and familial duties.
'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' is a top notch drama about a real life person, warts, foul language and all, and you neither need to love his music, punk generally nor, indeed, any form of music to appreciate this gem of a film. find out more...